The credit belongs to the artist who conceived and created it and, spiritually, to the hundreds of veterans who endorsed it. This work was conceived in response to years of dishonest army recruitment material and we continue to endorse it.

The establishment response has shown two things.

Firstly, it has highlighted the important and popular work done by Darren Cullen and VFP to educate people about the brutal reality of modern warfare and the possible negative outcomes of military service . For this we are grateful.

Secondly it has brought into the open the amateur journalism of sections of the press and the willingness of the elite to exploit soldiers and veterans for political capital.

We might linger over the appalling journalism involved in this pathetic hit piece. In their jingoistic ardour for clicks, the reporters clearly did not even bother to check into the background of the project.

That this project was backed by hundreds of veterans – many of whom bear the wounds of active service in wars from D-Day to Libya – was as difficult to discover as typing words into a search engine and pressing enter.

We might also note that Johnny Mercer and Dan Jarvis, both former military officers turned politicians, both self-appointed “veteran’s champions”, used the Murdoch-owned Sun newspaper as a platform to attack the project and, by extension, attack the veterans involved in it.

This is the same newspaper group whose senior editorial staff acquired the personal details of dead soldiers, apparently by paying MoD officials.

The same Sun newspaper which slurred the working people of Liverpool over the Hillsborough disaster – a city from which many soldiers are recruited and to which many veterans return after service.

The same Sun newspaper which cheered on the misconceived, illegitimate and ultimately failed wars which saw thousands of UK troops killed, mutilated and mentally injured.

Johnny Mercer and Dan Jarvis, if you attack the efforts of former service personnel in the Sun, or even speak to the Sun, you are no champions of soldiers or veterans.

The British establishment, the Sun, the ‘hero’ charities, Jarvis, Mercer and their like, have for too long been trading off the backs of ordinary veterans and soldiers to push their pro war agenda. Those days are drawing to a close.

At the time of the Franco-British invasion of Russia to support the Ottoman Empire , known as the Crimean War, the relatively peace-minded P.M. ,Lord Aberdeen, remarked that the newspapers were pushing the government for war. At the time of the Boer War, the various newspapers generally adopted a jingoistic approach,all this setting up the huge propaganda efforts of the Great War.
Wars sell newspapers was the view, but not the sober reporting of body counts etc, only the flag-waving and, at its worst, hysteria.
Journalists have occasionally tried to show that the first casualty of war is the truth (see Phillip Knightley’s book; and note Pilger’s work as a war correspondent) but too many dance to their publisher’s tune, and are scared shotless of reporting the down -side of “conflicts” , supposing that there is an “up-side”.
Congratulations to VFP and other efforts to highlight the horror and the role of our media masters (and politicians) in hiding the full facts from the public.
Can we get Blair to face a tribunal, soon-ish ?

Former Army officer and Tory MP Johnny Mercer branded the stall’s owners “Britain hating anarchists who know the value of nothing”.
Allow me to set the record straight.
We VFP members, speak openly and truthfully about our experiences within the armed forces.
To say the above, speaks volumes and shows the arrogance these weasels have for anyone who speaks the truth and tells it for how it is.
Unlike this self righteous mouthpiece, I and every member of VFP do not consider ourselves as “Britain hating anarchists who know the value of nothing” and don`t label ourselves as “Heroes”.
PAL
Kenny Williams VFP